A little update from my corner of the world: you can now be my friend.
Oh, you say, I wasn’t before? Not like now. Now, we can share our Netflix queues!
http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P7iQZYMc8ejtfHix4RGP
Isn’t that exciting. You can see that I have 9 foreign films, a documentary, and a drama. Guess I’ll be watching my movies alone.
Actually, as sarcastic as I may sound about how we can achieve this new level of friendship, I’m really excited about Netflix. Can’t wait to get my first movie, and I’ll probably end up moving things around a bit. I was trying to decide how much of The UP Series I might put on my queue…
Speaking of friends, I had a good New Years as far as that arena goes. I seriously debated driving down to San Francisco from Portland to visit with a bunch of friends from Oberlin, but then as the day approached I backed down. I wanted to see those folks, but I didn’t want to drive all day just for one night of partying. Turned out New Years Eve was a bit of a wash – I enjoyed it despite having a small crew, but had gotten rather excited about the prospect of a few extra folks to join in the carousing and was a bit disappointed when they didn’t show. But, I sucked it up and called them the next day to invite them to lunch, and started a great tradition. Or, rather, I continued a great tradition. It turned out that everyone did want to get together, so I whipped up a little good luck lunch, complete with Hoppin’ John, Money Cabbage (although I left out the coins because I wasn’t sure of the proper sanitization practices) and Mac and Cheese, the glorified baked kind. Ok, the Mac and Cheesemight not be a traditional good luck food, but it went well with the meal, and it gave me a good excuse to use the recipe that Debbie baked in Florida from Smitten Kitchen.
In the end, with all the food, we ended up eating at about 3:30, talking for several hours afterward, then playing a game of Taboo. Guests left post 10 with most of the dishes unwashed. I’d say a very successful event!
I turned sick after that, and am sort of not quite better but not much worse. Just a head cold, but something I’d like to kick before the semester starts. On the upside, house is much cleaner for all of the staying in it I’ve been doing.
Yes, you can assume that I did have a lovely Christmas (or, shall I say, lovely Christmases) and that the end of the Florida trip went well – no problems in the airport, all my new items fit into my luggage, and they’ll let me come back next time. And, in addition, I had a lovely few days in Portland visiting my cousins Herman and Ruth and actually getting to spend some time with them. Ryan visited briefly on his way between a gig in Seattle and going home to the Bay Area, and the second night we went out to the Doug Fir, which was, as Ray would say, a trip. Who knew that kitsch log cabins could be so hip and relaxing all at the same time. I’d have guessed one or the other, but thought the two attributes to be mutually exclusive in that setting. Shows you what I know.
So, one last weekend before my nose is re-glued to the proverbial grindstone. Will I squeeze in all of the relaxing/dealing with real life that I want to before I am once again robbed of my free time?
A short list, as a bonus. Movies I think it would be worthwhile to own on DVD:
Afterlife
Dancer in the Dark
Triplets of Belleville
Amelie (although everyone else does)
Babe
The Straight Story.
Maybe you have something to recommend for me via Netflix…
PPS, I added more photos to my Flickr page. More to come this weekend.